The internet in Korea
Free Wireless Hotspots Wireless Internet access is pervasive in Korea, but most hotspots require a paid account with Nespot. However, there quite a few places around Seoul where you can find free open wireless access to the Internet. Gecko's Terrace in Itaewon offers fast, free wireless. You can also pick up this signal from the second floor of the Burger King across the street. COEX Mall is one giant open hotspot, and the food court areas offer nice areas to work. Access to electrical outlets though is very limited (or non-existent). The Starbucks in the Jeil/Standard Chartered bank in Jongno has a good open hotspot called "apple" or "apple net". The National Library of Korea has great open Internet access on the main floor. There are also excellent work stations with power outlets, and for those without a wireless card there are wired connections to the network. Home Connections Korea is touted as the most wired society on earth. There are a number of companies that will provide service to your house, or you can use one of the many internet cafes. Internet cafes, called PC Bangs (PC방) are on virtually every street corner in metropolitan areas. The cost is 1000 won per hour. The following is a list of internet providers, their approximate prices, and customer quotes: KTF Megapass Lite 36-38,000/mo. (landline included) "I wasn't sure about the megapass lite at first but it's way faster than either the cable or adsl I had in Canada and I usually get speeds comparable to my t1 connection I had in uni." Hanaro 33,000/mo. (also quoted as 28,000/mo. for ADSL + landline) "When I signed up for them last year they were offering a free gift to the value of 70,000. Nice... I picked a rice cooker." Hanfos Cable 45,000/mo. "Very Fast ..." KT NTopia VDSL 39,000/mo. "10 MB/s up and down. whee! Very Happy" Websites *Korean pages are usually quite graphics-intensive and can be hard to load from slower connections. You may need to turn off your popup blocker to access some sites, such as Cyworld. *Signing up on Korean sites usually requires a resident registration number (주민등록번호) which only Koreans have. Foreigners have to inquire directly or send scanned copies of their passports or drivers license and wait a few days. *Many Koreans use MSN Messenger as their perferred means of chatting. *Hotmail is popular with Koreans, as is Hanmail which is operated by Daum. Unfortunately you can't send messages between the two. Popular Sites Homepages http://www.cyworld.com A site for making mini-homepages (called mini-hompy's in Konglish). This site is very popular amongst young Koreans who use it as a way to keep in touch with their friends and share information about themselves. There is a random feature on Cyworld that lets you visit any page at all, and it is possible to meet people by randomly jumping about and leaving messages on pages of people that seem to be particularly interesting. See Also: *Making a Cyworld page *Foreigners with Cyworld pages Portal Sites http://www.daum.net http://www.naver.com http://www.nate.com http://kr.yahoo.com Entertainment and Humor http://web.humoruniv.com/ http://www.dcinside.com Other http://www.orgio.net - service closed http://empas.com